12th International Conference on Educational Studies and Applied Linguistics

Minor changes and improvements have been made to syllabi in the universities in Erbil-Kurdistan over the years. Hence, this research aims to bring to light the need for student-centered syllabus in Erbil- Kurdistan. It further aims to find out the degree to which the syllabi of syntax class are student-centered, assess the items mentioned in the syntax syllabi, and identify the frequency range of the existing student-centered factors. Additionally, it identifies the items in the syllabi that need to be modified towards a more student-centered format. Document review is adopted as a quantitative research tool for collecting data. 15 syllabi of syntax class have been collected in 8 public and private universities in Erbil-Kurdistan. To assess the learner-centeredness of the collected syllabi, the researchers adapted Cullen and Harris’ (2009) rubric in accordance to the syllabi in the universities in Kurdistan. The results show that syllabi of syntax class in the public and private universities in Erbil-Kurdistan are teacher-centered to a high degree. Moreover, the findings also show that the syllabi of syntax class would sound more student-centered if teachers start working on certain elements in their syllabi, such as accessibility of teacher, learning rationale, teacher’s role, student’s role, grades, feedback mechanisms, and revision/redoing. The results will benefit all the teachers in Erbil-Kurdistan and show them a clear picture of the state of their syllabi in terms of student-centeredness and encourage them to work on certain aspects in their syllabi to design a more student-centered syllabus.